Sir Alex Ferguson will
coach his 1,500th and final game for Manchester United on Sunday. But it’s not
as if he’s really leaving.

As David Moyes moves from Everton to take over
in the locker room and on the sideline, Ferguson
will be headed upstairs to the directors’ box. Whether that will be enough
distance for Moyes to feel comfortable in charge of one of the world’s biggest
and most successful clubs is the most important of many questions hanging over
the 20-time English champions.

Fortunately for United, it’s a dynamic Ferguson understands
well, having coached in the shadow of another club legend.

After arriving at Man U in 1986, Ferguson enjoyed spending time with Sir Matt Busby, the
coach who rebuilt the club out of the wreckage of World War II and again
following the 1958 plane crash in Munich
that killed seven of his players. Busby won five league championships, two FA
Cups and a European Cup before handing the job to one of his former players,
Wilf McGuinness, and becoming the club’s general manager.

By the time Ferguson arrived at United, Busby was 77 and
no longer active in the club’s affairs. But McGuinness didn’t have it so easy.
The club was already sagging when McGuinness was appointed in 1969, less than a
year after its European Cup triumph, and even a lineup that included such
greats at Bobby Charlton and George Best couldn’t prevent the collapse that
followed. Following a succession of coaches (including Busby for a brief
encore), United was relegated in 1974 and spent the next season mired in the
second division.

Throughout that sorry period, players were
known to take out their frustration in private meetings with Busby, who did not
shy from second-guessing his successors.

“He was always about somewhere where the
players could find him,” Frank O’Farrell, who lasted 18 months as coach, told
the Daily Telegraph in 2008. “After one
game, he told me I should have dropped Bobby Charlton.

“Another time he told me Martin Buchan [a
center back and O’Farrell’s first signing] was responsible for letting in all
the goals we were conceding, but I knew they weren’t his fault. Busby was
always interfering.”

Ferguson, a keen student of
United’s history, knows the story well. He has vowed that he will remain
involved but will be busy doing “other things,” including spending more time
with his wife, Cathy, whose grief following the death of her sister last fall
prompted his decision to retire.

“He will be staying on as a director. He’ll
come on to the board, which automatically means he will have a say,” Charlton
said of Ferguson.
“But he won’t interfere. Alex Ferguson doesn’t work like that.”

It’s clear that United is far more prepared for
this coaching transition than when Busby left in 1969. In Moyes, 50, it’s as if
the club grabbed a Fergie start-up kit off the shelf. The coaches were born 21
years but only six miles apart in a working-class region of Glasgow, where their fathers worked for the
same ship-building company. Both men are thoroughbred owners and horse racing
aficionados. Both burn with intensity, possess a volatile temper and have no
tolerance for mediocrity.

“He has a near-identical work ethic,
character, competitiveness to that of Sir Alex,” Steve McClaren, a one-time England national team coach and former Ferguson assistant, said
of Moyes. “It’s the master and the apprentice.”

Still, it’s the apprentice’s show now. For the
changeover to work, Moyes must respect the character of a club whose greatest
strength may be its fighting spirit (evidenced by all those last-minute “Fergie
Time” goals). But he also must be given the space to mold his own roster and
his own style of leadership.

The first test will be what to do about Wayne
Rooney, who having seen his role diminish has asked for a transfer. Ferguson said Sunday that
United will not let him leave, and Moyes has indicated a desire to try to
change Rooney’s mind.

But if the new coach ultimately decides Rooney
needs to go, will the coaching legend stand in the way of his protégé? There’s
a thin line between advice and interference.

Reuters, the
Observer, the Daily Mail and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Play was stopped for 97 seconds when visiting
Roma supporters would not stop chanting at Milan players Mario Balotelli and Kevin-Prince
Boateng, who are black. Warnings issued over the stadium speaker system went
unheeded, leading to a Serie A match being suspended because of racism for the
first time.

“What is 50,000 euros for such an incident?
I’m not happy and I will call the Italian federation. That’s not a way to deal
with such matters,” Blatter said Tuesday on FIFA’s website.

Pellegrini to City? All signs point to Malaga coach Manuel Pellegrini getting the job at Manchester City, where Roberto Mancini was fired
Monday one year to the day after the club under his guidance won the English
Premier League title. Pellegrini, a 59-year-old Chilean, is respected in Spain for his work with Real Madrid, Villarreal
and Malaga,
which came within an eyelash of knocking out Borussia Dortmund in the Champions
League quarters.

Americans in the
news: Defender
Steve Cherundolo, 34, set a Hannover record
for Bundesliga appearances Saturday, appearing in his 299th league games for
the club. … Nuremberg defender Timmy Chandler
tore a ligament in his left knee during training and will be out for three to
four weeks, putting his availability in doubt for upcoming U.S. national
team games.

Brazil roster: Brazil coach Luiz Felipe
Scolari had said he was likely to choose between Ronaldinho and Kaka for next
month’s Confederations Cup in Brazil,
the warm-up event for next year’s World Cup. But both names are missing from
the roster released Tuesday. The team does include Santos’ Neymar, Chelsea’s Oscar, Real
Madrid’s Marcelo and Paris Saint-Germain’s Lucas and Thiago Silva.

Staff and wire
reports

Stat of the week

91 Minutes played by Brek Shea at Stoke City
since his $4 million transfer from FC Dallas at the end of January. Shea came
off the bench in two games soon after the move to England, but he hasn’t even been
among the seven available substitutes for a match since March 10. He has no
goals, no assists and only one shot. Stoke closes out its Premier League season
Sunday at Southampton.

The week past

Dutch Cup final: AZ Alkmaar
2, PSV Eindhoven 1 — Jozy Altidore hasn’t scored for
the U.S.
national team since 2011, but he has an American-record 31 goals in all
competitions this season for AZ. His most recent proved to be the winner
Thursday in Rotterdam,
where AZ won its first Dutch Cup in 31 years. The victory earned the club a
qualifying spot for next season’s Europa League.

MLS: Sporting Kansas City 1, at Houston 0 — Aurelien Collin scored in the
73rd minute Sunday as Sporting ended the Dynamo’s 36-game home unbeaten streak,
a run that included 30 league games. Houston
hadn’t lost at home since a 2-0 defeat to Columbus
on June 18, 2011.

English League Championship playoff semifinals: at Watford
3, Leicester 1 (Watford advances on aggregate, 3-2) — Sunday’s game appeared headed to
overtime when, in the seventh minute of stoppage time, Leicester’s Anthony
Knockaert toppled theatrically after getting nudged and was awarded a penalty
kick. But former Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia saved Knockaert’s PK and
stopped a shot off the rebound as well to begin a Watford
counterattack, which ended with Troy Deeney scoring on a 12-yard volley and
hundreds of fans rushing the field in jubilation. Watford will play Crystal Palace
at Wembley on May 27, with the winner joining fellow second-division sides Cardiff and Hull
in the Premier League next season.

The week ahead

Europa League final: Chelsea vs. Benfica (Wednesday) — Benfica must recover
from the shock of its 2-1 weekend loss to FC Porto in a battle of Portuguese
Liga unbeatens. A draw would have kept Benfica atop the league standings with
one game remaining, but its archrivals took over first place on a stoppage-time
winner by Brazilian midfielder Kelvin. Playmaker Eden Hazard (hamstring) is out
for Chelsea,
which has wrapped up a 2013-14 Champions League place and could give interim
coach Rafa Benitez a major trophy on his way out.

English Premier League: Arsenal at Newcastle (Sunday) — Arsenal moved back into fourth place Tuesday
with a 4-1 home victory over Wigan, a result
that assured the losers of becoming the first team to win the FA Cup and get
relegated in the same season. With a win Sunday on the season’s final day, the
Gunners would advance to next summer’s Champions League playoffs at the expense
of fifth-place Tottenham. Arsenal hasn’t failed to reach the Champions League
since 1997, coach Arsene Wenger’s first season in charge.

Mexican Liga MX Clausura semifinals (starting
Wednesday) — It will be Santos Laguna, the 2012 Clausura champion, against
Cruz Azul and America vs. Monterrey in the semifinals for Mexico’s
winter-spring season. First legs are Wednesday and Thursday, with second legs
set for the weekend.

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